Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. Yesterday I tabled a report and legallybinding order from our Information and Privacy Commissioner on the summaries of the secret meetings held between GNWT and the Chamber of Mines. It proves regulatory capture is alive and well in the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment. If you don't believe me, read the Commissioner's reports. These were secret meetings with summaries that the department then tried to heavily redact to keep much of the content secret.

There's nothing wrong with GNWT officials meeting with the mining industry. In fact, I have...

Thanks, Madam Chair. So is there anyone else bringing money into this fibre link to Tuk? Is there any other outside funding? Thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I realize I'm probably straying a bit here, but are there any plans, then, to expand the network in the future as a result of the fires and what we've learned or maybe not learned? Thanks.

Thanks. And, look, I know I'm not even probably asking the right Minister here. So I'll just leave it at that. But I've waited eight years for something to happen. It hasn't happened. And I'm really worried. And I don't think we're in basic compliance with the law as a government. So I'm going to leave it at that but I'm going to raise this in a statement, and I'll have questions for the appropriate Minister probably next week because we're just not living up to our own laws. Thank you.

Okay, thanks. Yeah, fully in agreement. I've been pushing and trying to hope for the last eight years that something would be done because the archives is overflowing. I've been for at least a couple of tours there. The stuff is not in any kind of climate-controlled facility. Is this for the archives building itself, or is this the offsite storage? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair, for stopping the time on me. Okay, well, I'll offer a few comments, then.

So I guess I want to start with page 2, the introduction and, you know, I continue to point out that the biggest part of our capital budget is highways and roads at 26 percent. Housing is 4 percent. When our government continues to spend, you know, six times as much on highways and roads as we spend on housing and I understand that this is probably not doesn't include some federal money and so on, but this is money that we're spending, and when our government continues to spend six times as much on...

Yeah, thanks. I would appreciate the update. Look, I get that this is kind of the backbone thing, but when the project was sold, it was that people were going to get faster, cheaper internet in their homes, and I don't think that that's actually happened in some of the communities. So anything we can do to help make that happen, great. Because it I don't think it's really panned out the way that it was sold, so. And I'll just leave it at that. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 97319(2) Capital Estimates 20242025 and Tabled Document 97419(2) Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 20232024. Mahsi.

Okay, thanks. I guess maybe I'm jumping the gun here, but has that party been identified, and are we facilitating that in any way? Thanks.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I asked for that study last week. I'm still waiting. But the engagement to date done by the department has been done very selectively with the mining industry with secret meetings where information is shared internally and not made available to other interests. So can the Minister tell us what, if any, public or industry engagement is going to take place from now until a new Assembly is elected on November the 14th? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.